Demolishment of town squatters in 1987

Tua Pek Kong attests to Chinese prosperity through four economic booms

Tua Pek Kong in the 70's
The main building was made of timber. The makeshift structure infront of the Tua Pek Kong ( in the background) was built to temporarily house social and other festivities related to the Chinese community culture and beliefs.

 The Chinese temple or 'Tua Pek Kong' when built was a very tiny timber structure.  In the 1970's its main building and roofing was made of timber.  The Tua Pek Kong is centrally situated at the heart of the old Bintulu town.  It was surrounded by Chinese shophouses.  The Tua Pek Kong is illustrative of the story of the prosperity, mainly economic which the Chinese community benefited from the four economic booms that pulled out  Bintulu from a sleepy town to an industrial city it is today.  With increasing prosperity more funds were available to carry out major re-building and renovations work.  Today the Tua Pek Kong is totally different from the days prior to the economic boom. The shophouses around it also followed suit and took on a modern look and design.  They are all now constructed with permanent building materials, principally brickworks, concrete columns and flooring with roofing tiles or aluminium roofing sheets.

A modern look to the Tua Pek Kong, in the Fourth Economic Boom (2010 - today)
Picture taken 25 Sept'14

Old Bintulu food market and 'Tua Pek Kong' in 1972

Bintulu old food market (middle of picture) and 'Tua Pek Kong' (small building at top let of the picture)
Date of picture : 1972
Note the timber structure of all the shophouses and market buildings with roofing of belian shingles.
The river in the background is the Kemena river, flowing out to sea towards the right of the picture.

Picture shows the above same location taken on 27 September,2013.

There is a considerably big plot of land somewhere in the middle of Bintulu town which housed two structures in 1972.  At the top picture is shown the old food market and the 'Tua Pek Kong' - which is a small shrine housing a Chinese deity.  Today the plot of land has retained the 'Tua Pek Kong' which has been re-built in stages over the years .  In the picture above it is partly shown as the green tiled roofing structure on the former shrine site.  The old food market area has been turned into a small town garden.  Today all shophouses are of concrete structures and more permanent buildings are built around the town like the Main Market ( 'Pasar Utama' ) partly seen as a cone -shaped blue roofing structure above.